


Technophilia

by Blacksquirrel



Category: Firefly
Genre: F/F, First Time, Toys
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-06-11
Updated: 2006-06-11
Packaged: 2017-10-02 21:26:13
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,781
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10879
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Blacksquirrel/pseuds/Blacksquirrel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Written for <a href="http://community.livejournal.com/femslash_today/">femslash_today</a>'s <a href="http://community.livejournal.com/femslash_today/21191.html">"Sweet Dreams and Flying Machines" ficathon</a>. For teh_gandu who requested, "Inara knows another reason as to why Kaylee loves machines so much." - Although I modified the "knows" to "stumbles upon."</p><p>Thanks to my extremely helpful beta, executrix, who caught a number of potentially mortifying mistakes and gave excellent con crit.</p>
    </blockquote>





	Technophilia

**Author's Note:**

> Written for [femslash_today](http://community.livejournal.com/femslash_today/)'s ["Sweet Dreams and Flying Machines" ficathon](http://community.livejournal.com/femslash_today/21191.html). For teh_gandu who requested, "Inara knows another reason as to why Kaylee loves machines so much." - Although I modified the "knows" to "stumbles upon."
> 
> Thanks to my extremely helpful beta, executrix, who caught a number of potentially mortifying mistakes and gave excellent con crit.

Technophilia

  
Despite her extensive tutelage in poise, descending a vertical ladder in delicately embroidered silk sandals while holding the voluminous folds of a skirt away from the grease in numerous joints, corners, and crannies was not nearly as easy for her as Inara made it seem. Careful not to touch anything without *appearing* to not touch anything, Inara turned and stepped into the little living space to find Kaylee looking up curiously from a pile of parts, strewn like puzzle pieces across a bright patchwork rug. Inara enjoyed spending time with Kaylee, but by silent agreement they had always met in her shuttle where everything was neat, and familiar, and clean, and now in the midst of a whirlwind of multi-colored trinkets and mechanical odds and ends Kaylee's room felt strangely foreign to Inara and Kaylee herself like a shadowy new acquaintance.

A cheerfully voiced "What brings you down here?" pulled Inara from an unwelcome reminder of the distance she maintained from an otherwise closely-knit crew. Smoothing a smile that had grown brittle around the edges, she explained, "I hoped I could ask a favor of you. The shuttle has been making some clunking noises."

Kaylee beamed, "Of course I'll fix her up for you. Probably just needs a tiny tune up." Bustling around to reassemble the scattered contents of her tool box Kaylee preceded Inara up the steps, only to lean back over the hatch and add in a conspiratorial whisper, "Course, no need to tell the captain about this - He'd just try to make you pay for it and I reckon the maintenance should be part of the regular rent." Kaylee put a hand to her mouth to suppress a giggle at their little plot.

These moments made the shortness of the time they had known each other insignificant. Nose to nose when her head fully emerged from the lower rooms, Inara allowed the easy intimacy to warm her, "Thank you Kaylee, it's our secret." Resisting the urge to be truly playful and bump noses, Inara let the moment pass, levering herself from the ladder with precarious grace then following Kaylee down the passageway to a flurry of requests to reenact every nuance of the shuttle's grunts and symptoms.

Inara busied herself with needlessly reordering the contents of a chest. Vibrant Kaylee became a focused professional as soon as the panels covering the shuttle's engine were removed. The transformation drew Inara, but she didn't want her scrutiny to intrude upon the unfolding communion between woman and machine. Inara was accustomed to looks of reverence and while she didn't understand the urge to direct them toward muddled scraps of metal, she could respect Kaylee's love for all things mechanical - especially when tinged by affectionate exasperation for misbehaving mechanisms as it was now.

Unfortunately she was shortly left with nothing to contemplate but a pair of legs in loose trousers protruding from the bulkhead. Moments passed as she continued puttering about in the cabinet, when a series of curses muffled by the clank of a tool falling then sliding across the floor burst from the engine hold. A hand came into view then waved urgently. Sounding reassuringly unharmed Kaylee called out, "Inara? Could you hand me something from the tool box? Real strong black bar with a tweaky arrow at one end and an octagon at the other?"

Repressing a sigh Inara gingerly sorted through the grease-stained box's contents until finding something she could reasonably call "tweaky." She pulled it out, smiling at a string of rapidly escalating mutterings from behind her, and was about to turn around when something caught her eye. Wedged between a heavy file and something unsettlingly reminiscent of a spatula Inara could make out a slightly curved metal cylinder with three buttons and a switch at its base nestled in a slightly askew cloth covering. Oh. She didn't dare - did she? Smirking at the thought of other crew members naively poking through Kaylee's tools, she decided that she definitely did dare and called into the engine hatch, "Here it is" before plopping the vibrator into Kaylee's outstretched hand.

"Thanks, 'nara, I'm almost done. I'll just - Oh!" A surprised little squeak then Kaylee reemerged from under the engine, flushed and stammering "I was fixing some couplings, and everyone was on a run and, well . . ."

"Kaylee, what a girl does with her toolbox is her own business," Inara intoned with a carefully innocent expression which shortly dissolved into a smirk then outright giggles which melted Kaylee's pinched embarrassment as she too bubbled over in laughter at the horrible double entendre.

Collecting herself, sliding the toy into her overall pocket, and selecting the appropriate tool, Kaylee snuck a quick "This should just take another second" between lingering bursts of mirth and ducked back down to make a final series of adjustments.

After replacing the panels and closing her tool box Kaylee placed her hand flat over the engine's protective plating and motioned Inara to do the same. Joining Kaylee there and watching her spread her fingers then close her eyes and hummmm in contentment, Inara felt out of place, as though she had witnessed something painfully intimate. Then Kaylee looked at her with heavy lashes and smoky eyes, "Do you feel her? She's much happier now." Kaylee's palm rubbed small circles into the metal and the knowingness of the gesture caught Inara. "You can feel her vibrations like a heartbeat, like touching the very center of someone." A little tremor ran down Kaylee' spine and Inara watched her eyelashes flutter as though she had been overcome by sudden sensation. "I love machines," Kaylee said softly. Inara had heard her say numerous variants on that theme before, but it had never sounded quite like this.

"I don't," she burst out. "Space - It's all machines and cold and emptiness. I always think it's my job to reconnect people to human touch. I've never understood how people can survive for long stretches in ships - especially alone."

"Oh - so you never use - not even with the ambassador?" The question started strong but lost volume until it became a whisper, Kaylee having lost confidence, but not enough so to completely revoke the query.

"In training, of course, we learned about them, but no, even with my female clients I never use anything battery powered. Every Companion has specialties and that's just not one of mine" It had been a very long time since anything sexual could unnerve Inara, but now with Kaylee's hand brushing her pocket and brow lifting speculatively this felt like it was more about her than about her business. Inara felt acutely aware of where their hands brushed on the cool but now newly alive engine panel, of the little waves of mechanical motion that for the first time she could feel infusing the floor and running up her fingers to electrify every inch of skin.

Turning then levering herself to sit atop the thrumming panel Kaylee's eyes locked with Inara's then skittered away. With a shallow breath she addressed a rushed question to a point just above Inara's shoulder, "Have you ever been curious?" and as her hand slid over her trousers to pull out the metal cylinder she raised her face, wracked by a mixture of nervous hope, "Cause I could show you."

There it was. The invitation Inara had staved off with willful ignorance and selective attention ever since the ambassador's visit, but somehow none of the very important reasons she rehearsed seemed more alluring than the sight of Kaylee's competent little fingers sliding purposefully up and down her sex toy. Hesitantly moving one fingertip to its rounded head Inara stared at the suggestive interplay of metal and flesh, then at Kaylee's now quaking chest and breathed out a deceptively steady "All right."

It felt liberating, to grasp onto this moment with Kaylee, to let herself accept something just for her. She gasped at the rush of arousal, instantly desperate and needy as she never allowed herself to become. Closing the gap between them she captured a set of lush lips she hadn't wanted to want and ran a hand up Kaylee's trouser seam to her inner thigh which she teased and tickled with her thumb nail. Kaylee's legs snapped tight around her waist and she began jerking at her overalls' shoulder closures. Pulling back slightly in contemplation as buckles and fabric flew every which way, Inara bent forward to nibble the exposed ridge of an areola then trailed a line of kisses up to Kaylee's ear where she said, "I want to watch you" after tugging at a little lobe.

Kaylee moaned, pushed up slightly to let the overalls fall to the floor with a jangle and then settled onto the purring engine panel with another, louder moan. Taking Inara's hand in her own Kaylee brought both of their palms along the length of the vibrator, then flipped the switch at its base and guided the audibly whirring device to her nipples. Her head snapped back and for endless moments Kaylee's breathless humms and panting whines completely absorbed Inara. She could feel sympathetic twinges running through her still bound breasts. Then their hands drifted down Kaylee's body and her back bowed as Inara felt the slick, heated skin that their joined fingers pushed the thrumming metal to encircle. Again and again and Kaylee panted "In - a - ra" and it was too much to just watch anymore so Inara kissed across the ridge of Kaylee's nose to pull and flutter at her lips and dip her tongue into the sweet recesses of Kaylee's mouth as wetness moistened her palm.

A particularly urgent moue signaled another shift and Inara let go when one thrust pushed the vibrator deep inside Kaylee who locked her heels behind Inara's hips. "Touch me. The very center of me," she asked. Inara knew it was an invitation to more than the orgasm she could already see beginning to crest in Kaylee's shaking belly. So she put one hand to Kaylee's clit and one to her heart and watched as Kaylee came in lingering cycles, cradling the pleasure between them. When Kaylee's exhausted legs dropped from her waist and her still spasming fingers pulled the cylinder from her body, Inara leaned forward to engulf the vibrator in her mouth, tasting Kaylee and metal and space and loving them all with the force of a revelation.

"Maybe I could learn to appreciate machines after all," Inara said, already feeling the ghost of a cool smooth hum inside of herself. Kaylee smiled back at her, lit by the warmth of fading orgasm and building playful affection. Tugging speculatively at the laces of Inara's bodice Kaylee replied, "Shiny."


End file.
